Spokeshave Challenge

[Waterstone]

I'm done! Done in a rather satisfying way, that's for sure. Not only the particular shown blade now is razor sharp and has a sturdy edge, more important is that the further sharpening of these blades can easily repeated with a very controlled process.

The last pics showed a nicely ground face but a weak edge that was folded. The key was the inside shape of the blade indeed. After having spent some time to shape this bevel freehanded, I gave up rather frustrated. The result was poor. Then I remembered to have the knive sharpening jig SVM-45 . This is able to clamp the circular blade in a way that the bevelling could be done. The next step was pretty clear. I had to use the flat side of the Tormek stone to install the inside bevel. Wow, that went really good.



Hard to spot but there is a correctly shaped inside bevel at about 30°



After this was done the face needed a touch up on the Tormek and a little handhoning.



Time to test it



Fine full width shavings and an easy to work tool!

Now it will be the right time for some workpieces. Probably a few more hammers like these ones:





My special thanks are going to Robin for his ongoing support!

Klaus

[RobinW]

Well done Klaus!

I would like to add a couple of comments for future polishing.

I do not like grinding of the side of the wheel as I don't feel in control. I would have used the SV-45 (or made another jig) to hold the blade and done the inside bevel only a waterstone. However you should only need to polish up the inside bevel for a good while yet. But if you're happy, that's all that counts.

The photograph showing the outside surface now appears to have a polished area at both the back and the front of the ground area. Has this changed the front edge bevel angle?

Irrespective it's good to see that Nirvana is achievable!

Robin

[Waterstone]

Keen eye, Robin

Indeed I didn't polish the inside bevel. It's not easy for me to get that done properly because it's hard to see if the angle is correct while doing that freehanded. There's a risk to round the bevel. So the sharpness could be improved another bit by polishing the bevel. But: it already is really sharp!

The honing (polishing) of the face I did all the time. It might have given a tiny angle increasing since the hollow grind from the Tormek is flattened in the very edge area. Nothing wrong with that. I don't care too much if the cutting angle is 28, 30 or 32°. They all will work fine.

A sidenote: it's the first time that I was able to operate the tool with a very light grip. This makes the tool to cut thin and narrow shavings with very little resistance. The control of the cut is truly better with a light grip.

Klaus